


Looks a lot like Love

by highheelsandchocolate



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Manip, Romance, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-30 16:56:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3944440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highheelsandchocolate/pseuds/highheelsandchocolate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of flash-fiction Swan Queen drabbles that were all either collaborations with or retroactively inspired by the massively talented artists of Swen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'm Only Frosty on the Outside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first piece of artwork done my me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Hey!” Emma shouted up at the window hanging high above her head. “Regina! Get your ass out here right now!”

The blonde scuffed her foot along the snow-sprinkled path leading to the mayor’s mansion and scowled slightly. Her breath was clearly visible in the frosty air and her lungs burned every time she gulped in another mouthful; now was one of those moments Emma wished she had had the foresight not to run the entire distance here in her downy parka.

The door of 108 creaked open slowly, allowing Regina to take in the blonde standing on her doorstep. The woman’s nose and cheeks were tinged red with cold and her knitted hat was sitting cockeyed on her head.

“What can I do for you this morning, Sheriff?” the mayor drawled.

“I’m cold,” Emma stated blankly.

Regina cocked an eyebrow at her.  “And just what exactly has that got to do with me?”

At this Emma threw her arms around Regina’s neck and assaulted her with a crushing kiss. A contented hum rumbled deep in the mayor’s chest as she returned the kiss with fervor, breaking it only when the need for air became a necessity.

Emma whispered into her ear, a smile creeping over her wind-bitten features, “Kissing you is the fastest way I know how to warm up.”

Stray snowflakes from Emma’s curls fell onto Regina’s black turtleneck and the brunette grinned as she pecked the blonde once more on the lips.

“Glad to be of service,” she husked back.

She then quickly whirled Emma back around toward the street and smacked her on the butt. “Now get back to work before I have to fire you.”

Emma spared the mayor a withering glance over her shoulder before she strolled back off through the wintry morning to the station with a new-found spring in her step.


	2. It’s Not So Bad If I’m With You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manip by the wonderfully creative _helebing._ See more of her stuff on Tumblr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emma has finally convinced Regina to come along with her and Henry on their ‘bonding weekend’ in the Storybrooke woods. And at first the brunette is a horrible grump; camping reminds her much too much of the Enchanted Forest for her liking. But then Emma has stripped down to a very thin tank top in the heat and gotten herself stuck in a tree while trying to impress their son. And Henry is pointing out frogs in a riverbed and bringing her shards of shale that he insists she keep safe in her pocket until they get home. And by the time the campfire is roaring beside them, Regina has forgotten to be grumpy and is chuckling along with her family as she toasts a perfectly well-rounded s’more and pops it into her mouth (Emma and Henry’s have both burnt to a crisp).

Then with Henry asleep in the other tent, Emma finally pulls out the wine. It’s a nicer vintage than she expected the sheriff to buy but she insists that she’s only imbibing because the temperature has drastically dropped and it is the only way to keep warm. That’s also her excuse for sharing Emma’s sleeping bag.

And so when Emma suddenly receives a text from her mother, they are both on the other side of intoxicated.

_“Just checking in. Everything still going okay? Are you keeping safe?”_

Regina lifted her eyebrows as quizzically as she could when Emma groaned out loud, “It’s my mom.”

The blonde typed back a quick text: _“I’m out here with the Evil Queen. I’ve got all the protection I need.”_

She smiled dopily at the brunette and pressed send. The response buzzed immediately in her hand.

_“I shouldn’t have to tell you that that is not comforting at all.”_

Emma sighed and tugged Regina closer. “Get in here,” she muttered. “Prove my mother wrong and show her we can keep warm.”

Pleased with the show of affection and still quite a bit tipsy, Regina eagerly showcased her matching hot water bottle as Emma snapped the picture.

“There,” Emma said, inspecting the snapshot. She looked back at the brunette whose face was much closer to hers than it was before. She smiled, “Perfect.”

Regina didn't move away. She just stayed in the sheriff's personal space until she was breathing in the breath that Emma was breathing out. She smiled back.

The kiss sent Emma sprawling back in her sleeping bag with the Queen deliciously on top of her. And how she managed to still hit send with Regina devouring her face like that, she’d never know. But it was definitely worth the 5 missed phone calls from Snow she found in the morning.


	3. The Queen She Never Thought She’d See

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manip by _xxtorchxx._ And with this collaboration began the beginning of a beautiful friendship :) I love making art with this woman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Regina, what’re you doi-"

The air was forced from Emma’s lungs as her back collided with the cold stone wall behind her. Two chilling fingers slid nimbly up her neck, leaving goosebumps in their wake, before they caught roughly under her chin. They dawdled there for a moment as Emma’s breathing quickened against her will and she reluctantly returned her gaze to the Queen.

She couldn’t decide if she was furious or turned on.

Probably a little bit of both.

Regina’s lips were parted and her eyes were dark as sin as she inched closer to the blonde.

"Uh-uh," the Queen chastised. "Here, I only go by _Your Majesty…_ ”


	4. I'll Follow You... If You're Into That Kinda Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another manip by the wildly talented _xxtorchxx._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emma rounded on the Queen as soon as her parents and the pirate were out of earshot.

“Really Regina? You want me to lead?”

“That’s what I just said, wasn’t it? And I believe it was you that was so adamant about taking up the position in the first place. Your little beach pep-talk ringing any bells?”

Emma’s brow furrowed as she considered how well shoving the Queen out of frustration would end for her. “But seriously,” Emma pushed, “that’s all it took? After a year of violently fighting you on just about everything ever, I’m right about one magic mermaid and you’re suddenly just going to back off and let me do things my way?”

Regina crossed her arms huffily in front of her. “As long as your plan is not as completely inane as I believe it’s going to be… yes.”

But the superior smirk decorating Regina’s lips made the blonde hesitate.

“You don’t think I can do it,” Emma accused. “You want me to fail.”

“I most certainly do not!” Regina spat back. “I want to find Henry just as much as you do!”

Emma flailed her arms around in her frustration, “Then why would you stick me in charge when I just know that you won’t be able to leave well enough alone. You’re just going to belittle my ‘inferior knowledge of magic’,” Regina rolled her eyes at the Savior’s idiotic use of air-quotes, “until I feel stupid enough to let you do it your way anyway. I know you will.”

The Queen pursed her lips into a thin annoyed line, “…maybe I’m just feeling generous today, Miss Swan.”

But the quick dart her eyes made to the sheriff’s lips spoke otherwise. And Emma caught the minute movement.

And suddenly the Savior was encroaching rapidly on Regina’s personal space, forcing her to retreat backwards further into the brush until her back collided roughly with the nearest tree. Two strong arms pinned her in place.

“Ahh, is Madam Mayor finally ready to give up some of her precious control?” Emma simmered, locking her heated gaze onto the brunette’s indignant one. She pressed her pelvis gently into the Queen’s and reveled in the small gasp the movement elicited, “Is that what I’m hearing?”

Regina swallowed roughly, her eyes betraying her again as they flickered once more towards Emma’s snarling lips. “I’m not above letting someone else take the reins every once in a while,” her voice dropped to a dangerously seductive growl, “…if they know what they’re doing.”

Their faces were only inches apart by now and the humid air was rapidly becoming thick with a new and delicious sort of tension, much better than the tang of anger from before… but just as Regina thought she was about to be kissed, Emma tucked her head to the side and missed her lips; her hot mouth coming to rest firmly against the Queen’s ear instead.

“Good to know,” Emma practically purred and Regina’s legs nearly gave out from under her.

And then with a sinful smirk and an eyebrow raise of her own, Emma left the newly-breathless brunette digging her nails aggressively into the bark behind her back, with a pleasant blush now covering her cheeks.


	5. Living Up to Your Namesake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The magnificent _xxtorchxx_ strikes again!

Henry collapsed the instant he plunged his heart into Peter Pan’s chest. And then all hell broke loose.

The demon cackled in victory as the world rumbled and pitched; Neverland vines surging out of the earth like tentacles to destroy the ramshackle rock and obliterate the looming magic hourglass.

The sand timer shattered in a flurry of shards and with it, the magic it was containing. Golden flecks ricocheted throughout the stone cranium and rained down on the adults left on the ground while Pan rose maliciously into the air; a bright green shockwave erupting from his ribcage and rocketing across the island.

And then with an evil glint in his eye, he simply turned tail and zoomed out of the eye of the skull and into the ever-night air.

But all three of Henry’s parents only had eyes for their son as they raced to his breathless side.

“HENRY! NO!”

_No no no no._

Hands patted his face, pushed at his chest, clutched desperately to his arms. They shook him and shoved him. Kissed him and hugged him. Yelled and cooed and cried his name. But nothing worked. Their little boy was gone.

Neal refused to give up his mouth-to-mouth resuscitation act, needing to do something with his hands to keep the grief from setting in. He was trying to help, it was all he had left, even if he knew in his bones that his persistence wouldn’t do any good. His son no longer had a heart to restart.

As Regina mumbled reassuring whispers into her deaf boy’s ears, Emma suddenly backed away from her son, the smell of death finally registering in her hazy brain. She crawled as far away from him as possible until her spine was slumped firmly against the cracking cave wall, utter hopelessness shining in the lost girl’s eyes.

“He’s gone,” Emma choked. “He’s really gone.”

The Queen whipped her tear-stained face towards the defeated voice to her left. Emma gagged on a sob as tears of her own started to stream down her face and her shoulders began to shudder, “We failed him.”

Regina’s panic-fried nerves boiled under her skin, the dropping sensation in her heart quickly morphing into an old, familiar rage. “No!” she barked back, instantly angry. “Don’t say that!”

But Emma continued to sputter, completely overwhelmed by the lifeless frame Neal insisted on pummeling. “He’s dead you guys!” she shrieked, yanking distractedly at her messy hair. “He died! And nothing you can do is going to bring him back!”

And at that Regina immediately found herself crouching in front of the crumbling Savior, daring her to face the situation. She grabbed the woman by the biceps and hung on for dear life, rooting herself in the tragedy unfurling in front of her face. “No,” Regina accused. Her fingertips dug into the muscled flesh she was grasping. “You don’t get to fall apart, Miss Swan. You have to be the hero. _You_.”

Emma shook her head, refusing to make eye-contact with the Queen. “I can’t. It hurts too much.”

“But you’re the Savior! You have to fix this!” Regina screamed. She violently shook the blonde in her hands and slammed her back into the wall. Emma didn’t even struggle. “Snap out of it, Emma!”

At the sound of her name falling from the brunette’s mouth, Emma finally turned her eyes to burn into the Queen’s.

“Regina,” her voice sounded pitiful and her lip was trembling something fierce. “I don’t know what to do. We were too late.”

The Queen pressed her lips into a firm line to keep the desperate stuttering gasp threatening at the back of her throat at bay. And all at once her eyes hardened with tenacity anew.

“It’s never too late.”

Emma tried to look away but Regina cupped her cheeks in both of her palms to keep the blonde from retreating.

“Henry has the blood of Snow White and Prince Charming rushing through his veins. He is a descendant of the Dark One and was born from the love of the Savior. And on top of all of that, his mother is a very angry Evil Queen.” She let the corner of her lip twitch upward for a moment as she punctuated her words. “A Queen who has every intention of ripping out that mutant’s heart and giving it back to her son.”

A moment of tense silence descended between the two mothers, both of them searching the other’s face for the strength they needed to push forward.

So the Queen scoffed, “Now are you going to just sit there sniveling like a lump or are you going to help me do it?”

Regina wasn’t sure if the indignancy coloring her voice successfully masked her encroaching terror of enacting said plan, but it rallied Emma nonetheless.

“Let’s kill that son of a bitch.”

A painfully small smile cracked across Regina’s face as Emma’s old fire flared behind her skin once more. Her thumb traced possessively over the blonde’s cheek, her words meant to reassure herself as much as they were also for the Savior in front of her. “We’re going to destroy that insipid lost boy and get our son back. Do you hear me?”

Emma nodded minutely in her grasp; her jaw set in determination. “Together?”

“Together.”


	6. Something About Silverware

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Photo credit to _xxtorchxx_ once again.

Emma groaned loudly from across the counter.

Intrigued by the indecent sound, Regina slowly raised her eyes from the book she was reading to glance at the sheriff sharing her tabletop.

“What?”

The blonde’s nails were biting into the linoleum of her counter and she looked oddly flushed. Regina cocked an eyebrow.

“Nothing,” Emma replied sharply, and she looked back at her half-finished cereal. “It– it’s nothing.”

“Okay,” Regina hummed slyly. “If you insist dear.”

The brunette then went back to idly fingering her spoon, twirling it lazily between her long fingers as she pretended to refocus on her book. The leftover milk swirled playfully in the bottom of her bowl, and she nonchalantly spun the spoon through it, letting the creamy residue coat the silver utensil.

She could still feel her wife’s hungry gaze on her without even looking up. And so again, Regina casually brought the spoon to her mouth and wrapped her lips around it, sucking on the tool until it returned to its shiny and gleaming state.

A flustered breath escaped across from her. She once again looked up to meet darkening emerald eyes.

The spoon exited Regina’s mouth with a loud _pop_. “Having problems concentrating this morning, are we?”

Emma almost growled. “I hate it when you do that thing with spoons.”

A knowing smirk threatened the corner of the Queen’s lips as she feigned ignorance. She adopted an indignant tone, “What thing with spoons?”

Emma pushed out of her chair and stalked around the table. “Oh don’t play coy with me, Madam Mayor… you know exactly what I mean.”

Regina remained obstinately seated as Emma encroached on her personal space. She then took a teasingly long lick to the back of her spoon, her tongue flicking lightly against the cool metal as she locked eyes with the woman now creating a shadow over her novel. “I fear I really have no idea what you’re going on about,” she replied smoothly.

And suddenly her lap was full of Savior as Emma straddled the Queen completely and plucked the offending spoon out of her hand.

“No.”

“No?” Regina countered, slightly confused. “What do you mean, _no_?”

Regina’s lips parted with a tiny moan as the blonde rolled her hips forward and brought the spoon upright between their faces. “I mean no as in this spoon is not going to get more action with my hot wife than I do.”

If Emma hadn’t said it quite so seriously Regina would have laughed. As it was, she did try to snatch the spoon back, but Emma was faster. The brunette shot her a playful scowl as Emma held the spoon out of her reach.

“Getting jealous of the cutlery now?” she teased, but her hands roamed nonetheless. She grabbed two healthy handfuls of the knightly ass sitting across her lap.

The knight in question rolled her hips again.

“It’s not fair,” Emma whispered before planting a quick peck on Regina’s lips, “that you look,” she planted another at the corner of the Queen’s mouth, “so damn sexy,” and another on the hinge of her jaw “all the time.” Emma then cupped her lover’s face in both of her hands and brought them excruciatingly close together. “And I can’t do,” she breathed hotly over Regina’s mouth, “anything” she bit the lipsticked lower lip beneath her, “about it.”

Regina was slightly breathless as she pulled back from the conquering her lips were taking. “And why can’t you?” she asked huskily.

“Henry.”

Regina’s brow furrowed as she was instantly taken out of the moment. “What has Henry got to do with this?”

“He’s always here!” Emma whined. “I mean, I love the kid, you know I do but,” she sighed heavily, “he’s kind of a major cockblock anytime I want to take you in the kitchen.”

_That_ sent a jolt straight into the Queen’s core and suddenly a mischievous grin was lighting up the brunette’s face.

“Then what’s stopping you now?”

Emma jerked back with an expression that just screamed _isn’t it obvious_. “Umm, our son?”

Regina slowly shook her head as her fingers whispered up her Savior’s toned bicep. “He left for school half an hour ago.”

Emma whipped her head around like she was expecting him to come bursting into the room any minute, searching for her almost-teenaged progeny. “Wha– wait, when did he–? How did he– but I didn’t see…?”

“He said goodbye to you and everything,” Regina continued, and she leaned forward to place a teasing kiss against a creamy collarbone.

Emma just stared at her blankly and the Queen chuckled deep in her throat, “I must be more distracting than I thought.”

The sheriff scowled at that and pinned Regina’s shoulders forcefully back against her chair. Regina’s eyes darkened.

“Shut up, Your Majesty.”

“Make me, Miss Swan.”

And that kiss definitely escalated into something else.


	7. As Frozen As My Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this upon request of the lovely _xxtorchxx_ herself :) I hope you like it dear!

Two Queens stood at a faceoff in the ever-suffocating white; one an icicle blonde that blended almost seamlessly into Storybrooke’s newest snowy landscape and the other a blackened smudge of reformed evil with a dot of red hovering about three feet from the tip of her elbow.

A red dot that Regina was very pleased had recently rediscovered her love for that atrocious leather jacket.

Emma shouted across the whirling snowstorm, gun trained on the latest threat to their happiness, “Elsa! Stop what you’re doing immediately!”

“I can’t!” the snow queen growled and more snow erupted from her hands; the flurry of white particles between the royals thickening considerably. “You won’t leave me alone!”

“You’re trying to freeze all of my hard-won supporters, dear. Forgive me if I’m upset,” Regina snipped, and Emma cocked her head half to the side to glower out of the corner of her eye.

“Not helping,” she grumbled.

“And you really think a gun is going to stop her?” Regina rolled her eyes as the storm around them picked up speed. “I actually know quite a bit about the correlation between anger and magic, Elsa. You need to calm down.”

But the icy woman was inconsolable, nearly shaking with how afraid of her own power she was. Elsa had, after all, never met another being with magic like hers before and she was finding the whole experience to be massively overwhelming. “I am a freak of nature!” she screamed back. “I almost killed my sister when I was six! I’m dangerous!”

Regina waved blithely at the air. “Who hasn’t had an older sibling try to kill them now and again?”

But Elsa would not be deterred in her anguish and let loose a flurry of ice in the brunette’s direction, “Stay away from me!”

Regina whipped the gust away and when it cleared Emma saw the Evil Queen glinting in Regina’s darkened irises. A fireball lit up her right fist.

The Savior’s eyes widened. “Fireballs are also not helpful!”

But the plea landed on deaf ears and soon the air was full of clashing elements; water and fire splashing in sizzling bursts of blue and red magic.

Regina called over the commotion as she flung a stray flame at her attacker, “If she won’t listen to reason, I say we melt the bitch!”

But the two were unfortunately fairly well-matched in skill and soon Regina was falling behind; the piles of Elsa’s snow catching and snagging around the usually quick-movements of the brunette’s gown. The Queen tripped once and that’s when Emma saw it.

As if in slow motion, Emma watched as Elsa released a deadly icicle straight towards Regina’s chest.

…The Queen was too long in recapturing her footing.

…The blonde witch was too formidable with her powers.

…The blue magic was hurtling too strong and too true to miss its mark.

_“Regina watch out!”_

Emma jumped superman style in front of the Queen and the icy blast hit her right in the chest.

“EMMA!!!” The Evil Queen’s shriek ran away with the wind in an anguished gust and in that moment she was surprised that no one in town seemed to hear her scream. The wind whipped away the sound even though she instantly felt its agony rub raw and angry in her throat.

The Savior landed heavily in the thick snow bank as a pile of limbs and disappeared within the drift.

Regina dropped to her knees and scrambled forward towards where Emma had dropped and Elsa seized her opportunity to flee the scene; the resulting snowstorm following in its creator’s wake and vanishing into thin air as well. Gone in a malevolent swish of ice-blue fabric.

The Queen plunged her hands deep into the snow as if she was reaching for a heart and came back with Emma in her grasp. She yanked hard and the sheriff’s head came sputtering out of the slush.

“Ow…” blue-tinged lips groaned.

“Of all the stupid, charming genes to inherit…” Regina started, but she cut herself off in a gasp when she hauled the blonde further out of the snow. Emma was heavier than she should have been and she landed with a mild thud against the Queen’s waist. “You’re freezing.”

Gloved fingers ran quickly along Emma’s forehead before they drifted down to the top of her shirt. Ice crystals plated her skin like a lacquer and judging by significant weight resting atop her, the blonde’s legs had already frozen solid as a statue.

“What did she do to you?”

Emma raised an uncooperative hand towards her chest and grimaced at the accompanying chill, “Wow. I bring being the White Knight to a whole new level.” She coughed and the rapidly expanding frost climbed up her neck a little faster.

“We need to get you to a hospital, Ms. Swan.”

“Oh, don’t ‘Ms. Swan’ me, Regina,” Emma groaned painfully. “Not when I’m dying.”

The Queen’s heart jumped to her throat and became a lump. “Emma… you’re not dying.”

“Yeah,” the blonde wheezed. “I am.” She struggled to sit up and failed. “You heard Elsa. She’s killed people before with this stuff…”

“ _Tried_. Tried to kill people.” Regina admonished, her tone harsh with fear. “You are not dying on my watch. Snow would never forgive me. I’ll get Henry. Henry will–”

“Henry is too far away. And god…” Emma’s teeth clacked together as they started to chatter. “I am so _cold_.”

Emma grabbed her hand in a vice-like grip and held on tight, the blonde’s fingers like ice between her own as she clung desperately to the Queen’s warmth. “Tell Henry… I love him…” she winced painfully, and Regina felt one of her own hot tears slide down her cheek. It sizzled when it landed on the prone form beneath her. “Tell him… that there was nothing he could have done… to save me… that I died a hero…”

“Emma, please. You have to fight it.” The mayor’s voice cracked on a whisper. “I need you.”

And the idiot blonde smiled at her, even as her eyelashes froze over and her cheeks tinged a deathly shade of white. “There you go…” Emma trembled and shook as she was suddenly overrun by a violent torrent of shivers, “telling the truth again.”

The Savior took one deep, stuttering inhale to try to still the tremors and it worked too well. The ice clawed up the sheriff’s skin in a magical burst and with her last attempt at breath, Emma froze solid in Regina’s lap with her face pressed fervently against the velvet-covered abdomen.

Regina let out an unexpectedly strangled sob at the sight and clutched the frozen woman to her chest.

On her knees in the middle of the snowbank the world was white and quiet and the deafening silence was loud to her ears. The mothers were the only two people in the world as the Queen rocked, back and forth, back and forth, cooing and crying and humming Emma’s name like a mantra into her icicle hair.

It had all happened so _fast_ and now Emma was just _gone._

It was unacceptable.

Regina’s tumultuous heart filled to bursting as she pulled back to gaze at the beautifully frozen face in her hands and thought _screw it. Screw fate. Screw destiny. Screw titles and curses and books full of half-truths. Screw murderously estranged siblings and awkward family ties. Screw pirates and thieves and soulmate-seeking fairy dust._

_She had ‘our son’ and ‘we did it’._

_We._

Regina had gone through too much in her life to lose her happy ending now and she was determined to keep it… if it was the last thing she did.

_Magic is not about what you see; it’s about how you feel._

And so the Queen kissed the Savior. Hard.

It felt like a chainsaw. It felt like a whirling wraith. It felt like a diamond trigger, a basket of apples, and moving the moon.

And for a full minute after the pulse of white light burst from their connected lips like a wave… nothing happened.

But then slowly, ever so slowly, so slowly that if her eyes hadn’t been glued to the pale form in front of her she would have missed it, the ice started to recede.

Emma’s skin pinked up. Her hair began to melt. Her lips thawed from ridged to supple once again.

And finally, two gorgeous emerald irises blinked open and held her gaze.

“Hey.”

“Hey, yourself,” Regina chuckled, and it was a watery sound filled with an adoration she wasn’t used to acknowledging for anyone save Henry.

The sheriff’s brow then crinkled adorably as she wondered aloud, “You saved me.”

Regina blushed; which felt completely out of place seeing as she was still ensconced in her ‘hell-bent-on-revenge monarch’ attire. She’d worn it in the hope that it would intimidate their newest nemesis… but with the way Emma was eyeing her cleavage from this angle she was beginning to rethink her earlier musings.

The Queen cleared her throat. “I did. I thought it was high time you gave someone else the glory of saving the side of good in this town.”

“But you saved me with True Love’s Kiss.”

Regina’s stomach bottomed out at the truth but it was a small sensation compared to the elation of having Emma breathing and warm in the world again. And so in the spirit of her ongoing journey to redemption, she bit the corner of her lip and told the truth.

“I might have.”

The answering cock-eyed grin was unexpected to say the least, but it was assuredly not unwelcome. Emma inquired with an odd lilt to her voice, “How can you be sure it worked?”

Regina scoffed. “Well, you’re breathing aren’t you?”

The blonde hummed in the back of her throat. “Hmm, I don’t know. Parts of my lungs still feel a bit…” she took a dramatically deep breath, “…crusty. I think I might need saving again.”

The mayor’s frown was legendary as her face screwed up in incomprehension. “Whatever do you mean ‘need saving again’?” she huffed. “If you think I’m going to let you just lay there and  _criticize_ _how_ _I saved you_ , after all we’ve been–!”

“ _Regina_ ,” Emma rolled her eyes with a pout, “I want you to kiss me again.” She sighed, puppy-eyes fully activated. “I want to be awake for this one.”

The Queen smiled. And for once in her life, she couldn’t find it within herself to refuse the offer.


End file.
